Hill running

Trigger Fish said:

I've got hills in the area where I run and was wondering
what are some good ways to utilize those hills so I can
improve my speed for running?

Also how do I avoid injuries while running on hills?

Thanks

Hill repeats a couple times a week are great, just be
carefull running down hill. It can be really hard on your
ITB.

In article said:

I've got hills in the area where I run and was wondering
what are some good ways to utilize those hills so I can
improve my speed for running?

There are no hard and fast rules for "how to do hills", but
here is one suggestion.

Find a 400m or so stretch up a reasonable grade -- 5-10%,
then run up it 5 times, and jog back down slowly each time.
The downhills are *rests*, do them at whatever pace feels
comfortable (will probably be very slow, especially late in
the workout). Try to do rep 1 at a moderate pace and
increase pace on subsequent reps. If the first rep is too
slow, you can always add one more.

Alternatively, you could do a similar workout with longer
reps, 800m-1600m. For these, do between 2 and 3 miles total
(e.g. 4-6x800m reps or 3-4x1200m or 2-3x1600m).

The workout with long reps is harder, so start with the
shorter one, then alternate it with a long reps workout when
you feel you're ready for a challenge.

Quoted message said:

Also how do I avoid injuries while running on hills?

Do your hill workout once a week, and you will get faster.
More isn't always better -- the one workout each week should
bring about fairly rapid adaptions / improvements if you're
consistent with both this and your endurance work. Applying
more stress than your body can adapt to is
counterproductive. Likewise, when you increase the level of
difficulty, do so gradually. For example, your first long
reps workout should be the easiest possible, a 4x800. Then
gradually increase number of reps or length of reps.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Hi TF:

"Trigger Fish" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I've got hills in the area where I run and was wondering
what are some good ways to utilize those hills so I can
improve my speed for running?

Quoted message said:

Also how do I avoid injuries while running on hills?

I would gradually phase in some speed play -- say three or
four 2-3 minute surges, but not too fast, on uphills and
downhills. I often do 3 to 10 minute surges on rolling
sections, so I get both up and downhill in the same
interval. The trick is do be *gradual* about it and adapt
over a few weeks. If you try to blow it out, especially on a
downhill, you're asking for trouble.

If you play this game once a week for several weeks, you'll
get stronger, and if you play on the downhills, too, you'll
get faster there.

Most people are very wary of downhill training, but I train
doing fast uphills and downhills. But the downhills are on a
soft dirt/trail/grass path. I never run fast downhills on
pavement in training. Gradual adjustment is the key.

You know, in most races, there is as much downhill as
uphill...makes sense to train for both. Just be careful you
don't overdo it, and if injuries arise, react immediately
and back off.

Race Strategy: If you are strong on uphills, here's how you
can cash in: you can actually back off a bit on uphills in
races, and make strong moves right as the hill ends. It's
very disheartening :-).

--Dan

I have a few of hills near me that run parallel to each
other. I go up hill 1, down hill 2, up hill 3 and then down
hill 1 back to the start, which equals 10km, almost
exactly. I try to run this reasonably hard. The real beauty
of the session is NOT to rest after the hills. Sure, there
are only two 'up' sections, but the physical and
psychological boost you get by powering through the pain at
the end of a hill are, subjectively, fantastic. I guess for
me this session is more psychological - it's nice to know
that you can beast yourself through tiredness after
exertion and not fall to bits.

As for injuries, I read somewhere that downhill running once
a week is supposed to prevent injuries (when done sensibly).
I imagine that this is due to accentuated eccentric loading
of the quads and hams.

Best, Dave

--

Ask for my e-mail if needed

"Trigger Fish" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:triggerfish-
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've got hills in the area where I run and was wondering
what are some good ways to utilize those hills so I can
improve my speed for running?

Also how do I avoid injuries while running on hills?

Thanks

Todd said:

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 18:14:48 -0400, Trigger Fish wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've got hills in the area where I run and was wondering
what are some good ways to utilize those hills so I can
improve my speed for running?

Also how do I avoid injuries while running on hills?

Thanks

Quoted message said:

Hill repeats a couple times a week are great, just be
carefull running down hill. It can be really hard on
your ITB.

i'd add to this: be careful even when running up, if it's a
steep hill. last year, i was in good running shape. then one
day i went up a steep hill, quite fast, about 3 miles or so.
by the end of it, my knee was whining. the whining didn't
stop for a couple of months after that.

the other thing you should be careful of is your achilles
tendon. uphill running can really stretch it.

just take it slow and easy and back off at the first sign
of trouble.

good luck. jobs

Donovan Rebbechi <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Find a 400m or so stretch up a reasonable grade -- 5-10%,
then run up it 5 times, and jog back down slowly each
time. The downhills are *rests*, do them at whatever pace
feels comfortable (will probably be very slow, especially
late in the workout). Try to do rep 1 at a moderate pace
and increase pace on subsequent reps. If the first rep is
too slow, you can always add one more.

And if you cannot make the last one the fastest, the first
ones have been too fast.

The variation I began with was 2 series of 5x60s (jog down)
with a 5min jog pause between series. After that it was 2x
4x90-120s.

The shorter the repeats, the longer into your "racing
season" you can keep doing them.

Another alternative is an everyman+s variation of Lydiard´s
hillbounding sessions: 200m uphill, 200m jog "on the top",
200m downhill "sprint" with rapid strides, 200m jog "at the
bottom" - and after 3-4 of those a few short strides "at the
bottom". Repeat three times - and don´t forget to warm up
and to cool down.

Lydiard´s version involved uphill bounding, not running, but
that is IMHO something better left to young and well-trained
runners. If you´ve never ever done any, don´t begin now!

Anders